Sunday, June 14, 2009

Another Day in the Park

I met a handful of GRCers at THE LINE for a friendly run through the park. We ran the Zoo loop. It was my second time in as many days that I ran down through the zoo with a bunch of shirtless comrades. We look like some type of pathetic gang. Since I ran long yesterday, I nixed the Ross Drive hills and tried to keep the pace light. My legs definitely felt tired and heavy, but I am working on keeping my form and composure respectable while my legs are beat. I got in 73 last week...a bit less than planned, but this was due to an unscheduled day off. I've averaged 70 for the first 24 weeks of 2009, this is still 10 miles more per week than my average in 2008. I plan to keep surging ahead and running 1 (track/road) workout a week. I actually consider my long run my SECOND workout of the week due to the fact I need to take recovery days afterwards. I started "Again to Carthage" today while tanning (or burning) by the pool. So far so good.I owe a shot out to AAA (read "triple A"). Yesterday, while getting ready to drive to a wedding, I locked my keys in my car...while the car was running. I had turned the car to crank the a/c, then as I walked towards the trunk, I heard the door slam shut. Doh! I panicked and began to sweat. But then I remembered I had a trusty AAA card in my wallet. I gave them a ring and they promised the cavalry would arrive soonest. During the interim, I jimmied a coat hanger into my window. I failed at that task and only managed to get my nice clean hands covered in old grease. No worries, within 20 minutes, a AAA truck rolled into the parking lot and fixed my problem. The car was ice cold and I got to the wedding with 5 minutes to spare.

My friend did this exact thing - in New York, of all places. Just outside Penn Station while dropping his girlfriend off. He flags down a cop to find out if he's got a jimmy, and a homeless guy comes over and breaks out his own and opens up the car. Crazy.